On Wednesday night, the Cerritos College men's basketball team opened defense of their South Coast Conference South Division title with an 82-64 win at Compton College. The victory was the fourth in a row and seventh in the last eight games for the Falcons (14-5, 1-0), who will host Los Angeles Southwest College at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.

As they have been doing of late, Cerritos has received excellet balance in scoring, with four of the five starters scoring in double figures in the win. The Falcons started pulling away from the Tartars (3-14, 0-1) by the end of the first half, as they took a 46-31 advantage into intermission.

Sophomore guard Jalen Shores (Lakewood HS), who led the way with 17 points, connected on a trio of three-pointers and also added four assists and four steals. As a team, the Falcons shot 52% from the field, with sophomore guard Gorden Boykins (St. Anthony HS) hitting on all five of his shots to account for 11 points. Coming off the bench, sophomore guard Dennis Johnson (Compton HS) produced 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting to go along with three rebounds.

The tandem of freshmen Christian Bennett (Redondo Union HS) and Gary Williams (Dominguez HS) each finished with 10 points and combined for nine rebounds, while sophomore Justin Stephens (Gahr HS) led the team with seven rebounds to go along with his eight points and three assists. Off the bench, freshman Cameron McCoy (Taft HS) gave the Falcons nine points and five rebounds.